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Atlantis' Launch One Day Away
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) May 11, 2009 At this morning's final countdown status briefing from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Test Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said that the countdown timeline is on target and "Atlantis is ready to fly." Final preparations will continue throughout the day at Launch Pad 39A, and the rotating service structure that surrounds Atlantis will be rolled back into its launch position at 5 p.m. EDT. Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters improved on the forecast, now giving the team a 90-percent chance to launch Atlantis at 2:01 p.m. EDT tomorrow without weather interfering. Also this morning, STS-125 Commander Scott Altman and Pilot Gregory C. Johnson once again practiced landings in the Shuttle Training Aircraft as the entire crew readies for their mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Veteran astronaut Scott Altman will command the final space shuttle mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur. During the 11-day mission's five spacewalks, astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning into at least 2014. In addition to the originally scheduled work, Atlantis also will carry a replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit for Hubble. Astronauts will install the unit on the telescope, removing the one that stopped working on Sept. 27, 2008, delaying the servicing mission until the replacement was ready. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Live countdown and launch coverage STS-125 Mission Summary Shuttle at NASA Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com
High stakes in NASA's last visit to HubbleWashington (AFP) May 9, 2009 NASA will Monday launch the shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts into orbit on a high-risk last service mission to one of the greatest scientific instruments ever, the space telescope Hubble. There is no room for error, the US space agency warned this week, in the fifth and final maintenence operation on the Hubble before the shuttle fleet is retired. If all goes well, NASA says the tel ... read more |
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